Massachusetts voters this fall will have an extraordinary opportunity to increase their personal freedom and liberties by voting yes on three ballot questions that will decide whether to legalize marijuana for medical use, allow terminally ill adults to self-administer life-ending drugs, and require automakers to share diagnostic information with independent repair shops.

Question 1: Availability of Motor Vehicle Repair Information

Passage of Question 1 would require all automobile manufacturers that sell cars in Massachusetts to provide access to their diagnostic and repair information through a universal software system that could be accessed by the car’s owner, dealers, or independent repair shops, for no more than fair market value.

Everyone knows that the technology that goes into today’s cars is more complicated than ever before. It is no longer just simple mechanical repairs that have to be performed to keep a motor vehicle running. Instead, mechanics today need training and information in highly technical fields often tied to an understanding of computer-based parts and performance. Without the manuals and information that only the cars’ manufacturers possess, no one but the manufacturer’s dealers will be able to repair the cars. And as we all know, the cost to repair your car at a dealership is invariably more expensive than going to your local repair shop.

The Massachusetts Right to Repair Coalition has said the proposed law would provide mechanics and car owners the ability to purchase all repair information, giving consumers more options for service, including do-it-yourself repairs. Consumers of cars should have that freedom.

Question 2: Prescribing Medication to End Life, or “Death with Dignity”

The second ballot initiative would allow a physician licensed in Massachusetts to prescribe medication, at a terminally ill patient’s request, to end that patient’s life. To qualify, according to the Secretary of State’s summary of the law, a patient would have to be an adult resident who (1) is medically determined to be mentally capable of making and communicating health care decisions; (2) has been diagnosed by attending and consulting physicians as having an incurable, irreversible disease that will, within reasonable medical judgment, cause death within six months; and (3) voluntarily expresses a wish to die and has made an informed decision. The proposed law states that the patient would ingest the medicine in order to cause death in a humane and dignified manner.

Participation under the proposed law is entirely voluntary (for both the patients and the prescribing doctors), and in fact would make it punishable by imprisonment for anyone to coerce a patient to request medication, forge a request, or conceal a rescission of a request. A yes vote on the question would not legalize euthanasia, as a third party could not administer the medication – patients would have to ingest the medication themselves.

Opponents, primarily on religious grounds, have argued that only “natural” death should be allowed. But on its face, such an argument is specious at best. For while these religionists say that only God can decide when our lives should end, these same people have no problem supporting every extraordinary un-natural method to keep a patient alive, even when that state of “aliveness” results in great pain, suffering, and loss of dignity for both the patient and his loved ones.

The terminally ill should not be deprived of the liberty to end their lives in a manner and time they choose. Passage of Question 2 will give us all a little more freedom about one of the most important decisions anyone can make.

Question 3: Medical Use of Marijuana

A yes vote on Question 3 would add Massachusetts to the list of 17 other states (including New England states Maine, Connecticut, and Vermont) and the District of Columbia that provide legal protections from arrest for authorized patients who use cannabis with a doctor’s recommendation.

The proposed law would allow patients to possess up to a 60-day supply of marijuana for their personal medical use. If approved, the ballot question would allow at least one, but not more than five, non-profit medical marijuana treatment centers in each county, for a potential total of 35 statewide. The treatment centers would be allowed to grow, process, and provide marijuana to patients or their caregivers. The law would also allow a qualifying patient or their caregiver whose access to a treatment center is limited by financial hardship, physical inability to access reasonable transportation, or distance, to grow enough plants to provide a 60-day supply of marijuana for the patient’s own use.

The medical use of marijuana is a public health matter and should not be confused with the so-called war on drugs. The denying of medication to sick and dying patients to “send a message," is cruel and unconscionable, and intrudes upon what should fundamentally be a decision between doctor and patient. It is absurd to allow the medical use of such potentially dangerous drugs as cocaine and morphine, but not the relatively harmless marijuana.

A growing body of published studies and anecdotal evidence clearly indicates that smoked marijuana is efficacious for the treatment of glaucoma, pain, and the control of muscle spasms in patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, spinal cord injury, paraplegia and quadriplegia.

It is no secret that tens of thousands of cancer and AIDS patients already use medical marijuana, most risking arrest and jail if discovered. They and their doctors report it is effective in reducing the nausea and vomiting associated with cancer and AIDS treatment, and helps stimulate the appetite of those suffering from the AIDS wasting syndrome. A major study undertaken by the Institute of Medicine showed that for some patients, smoked marijuana is the most effective treatment for their illnesses, and that there is “no clear alternative” to treat patients suffering from chronic conditions such as pain or AIDS wasting.

In light of this study and all the previous studies showing marijuana to be less dangerous, addictive, and toxic than both alcohol and tobacco, it would be the height of cynicism and cruelty to continue denying effective medicine to sick people.